Iowa man displays confusion

Edward Stanek, the former CEO of Iowa’s state lottery, penned an op-ed last week for the Des Moines Register in which he opined that if the newspaper is going to have the freedom to run around hither and yon, requesting records from the government, then the government ought to have access to the newspaper’s private records and internal deliberations.

Mr. Stanek would actually like the newspaper to provide live Webcasts of its editorial board meetings.

Here, Mr. Stanek, is the difference between the records of the government and the records of our (still mostly) free press. The public, whether it wants to or not, pays all the bills of the Iowa government. The Des Moines Register, on the other hand, is private. It does not have the authority to toss Iowa citizens in jail if they don’t pay their taxes. Public. Private. Private. Public.